Fundamentals of GIS & Remote Sensing

At the end of this course, students should be able to: 1. explain the systematic principles of GIS and the application of GIS to biodiversity conservation and environmental studies using real-world examples; 2. acquire, combine and manipulate data from multiple sources in a GIS in order to deal and solve practical problems in biodiversity conservation and environmental science; 3. state the principles underlying the analysis of spatial data and remote sensing data and produce appropriate maps of environmental data; 4. developed practical technical skills on GIS analytical techniques; and 5. generate and critically evaluate GIS and remote sensing outcomes and write reports on GIS mapping and analysis.

Electromagnetic radiation and interaction with matter. Types and design of electromagnetic sensors. The photographic camera, Radiometers, thermal scanners, and multispectral scanners. Sensor platforms. Introduction to digital image processing. Image classification. Elements of photo interpretation. Definitions and Basic concepts of GIS (Geographical Information System). Spatial relationships. Elementary Mathematical concepts (graph theory, set theory, and topology). Components of a GIS. Field-based and object-based concepts of the real world. Raster and vector databases. Spatial Data Models: 2D, 3D, and 4D Model; tessellation data models; vector data models, tessellation versus spatial vector relationships: metric, topologic and spatial order. Data quality aspect: positional accuracy, attribute accuracy, logical consistency, completeness, and lineage. Data capture; data manipulation; data queries, data analysis; data modeling; data display and data presentation. 500 Level